It’s cute and melts my heart but not sure what it means

My boyfriend is mostly actions and less words and our relationship progresses very slow and strong and we are both so happy together and clearly love eachother so much the sex is amazing the company his support and we can basically be ourselves with eachother. As a girl I express myself more through words as well as actions but men are kinda more shy sometimes saying the three words we all want to hear. We been together for over a year now and sieving the pandemic in the best way we can we and I noticed that in the beginning I’d be the one saying I miss you while he would show it more as well as expressing love as well. I would say I love you and he would say I love you too. But recently I’ve noticed that aside from showing me his love and care he’s opened up to say it here and there too. We were grabbing a coffee and in just a moment I looked at him and he just said I love you without me initiating it at all. And he’s been saying it more often and idk I feel like our love is growing even more. I’m so happy I love him so much and I’m wondering since he’s more of an actions person and not much of vocal, what made him be more vocal? My family thinks I’m gonna marry him one day which I really hope that is true. I’m wondering if that’s what is in his mind maybe? That he may want to marry me? As this pretty much started happening as soon as my sister got married. How did your man slowly work himself up to proposing to you?